July Rides

[Crankin]

After I posted yesterday, I realized I'd written about 2 July rides in the June thread.
I don't think I'll be riding today, feeling a little guilty about leaving DH for hours, while he's recovering. He's good enough to take a walk, so it will be an active recovery day. I am fried from doing hilly ride with my faster, younger neighbors!

[katluvr]

I rarely post rides, usually post more in the running thread but since I plan to really focus on biking more now I should post here.
July 4th did a 22 mile locally. It was sunny and warm. Not fast, darn I've gotten slow.
July 5th we did the Withlocochee trail (its a "Rails to Trail" trial). Luckily lots of trees and shady most of the ride. We taxed ourselves with 48 miles. I admit I was suffering the last 10 miles. We are doing a MS ride in Sept. and why behind in our training so decided to kick it up a notch. I'm a bit tired today!

K

[ny biker]

I squeezed in a ride after work on July 1, before leaving for vacation the next day. It was very hot, and I stopped to rest several times because my heart rate was kinda high. But otherwise it was a nice ride.

[emily_in_nc]

We're in Walla Walla, Washington now, and after riding in mostly cooler weather for the past month traveling from Ohio to WA (legwarmers, armwarmers, jackets, etc. needed for many rides, with a few warmer ones interspersed), we are finally feeling the heat. We skipped over the 80s completely and are now looking at highs in the mid- to upper-90s and above. It's great to wear sleeveless jerseys again, but I need to get in the habit of getting going earlier in the morning. We had gotten lax (since the weather had been chilly most places we'd visited), piddling away the mornings 'til it warmed up a bit, and tending not to get going on rides until 10 or 11 am in many cases. We're NOT morning people but need to get going by no later than 9 am here (any earlier is almost impossible for us). This way, we can be done by noonish and avoid the worst of the heat, which peaks in the afternoon. We've been doing fewer but longer rides since we've had lots of driving days interspersed, but here more frequent but shorter rides makes more sense.

All that said, I've ridden every day starting July 2, about 40 miles (give or take 5) each ride, except yesterday, which was just 10 miles of utility riding to the farmer's market and grocery store. The roads in the county here are lightly traveled, with gorgeous views of the farms and surrounding hills. Lots of chip & seal, so you do get beat up a bit on some of them, which is yet another reason not to try for super long rides.

A few days ago we rode down into Oregon -- our first time in that state. In fact, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon have all been new states for me that we've visited in the past month!

Here's an example of the typical road-riding scenery here in Walla Walla County (just realized I am wearing the same jersey as my profile photo here!)

Attachment 17249 Attachment 17250 Attachment 17251

[khg]

On Saturday I rode on Mt Rainier--up to the Sunrise Visitor's Center and up to Chinook Pass. It was some of the most fun I've had on a bike--I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it was! It was also really neat to have a ton of other cyclists out with the same crazy idea. The population up there seemed evenly split between cyclists and international tourists.

If you've been to Seattle, you know how impressive and large the mountain looks from the city--at Sunrise, the summit appears to start rising just a few feet from the parking lot, and it is mind-bogglingly huge, beautiful, intimidating, awe-inspiring--I don't even know the words.

Then after the slog up to Cayuse Pass, the turn onto the road to Chinook Pass takes you through a couple of long switchbacks that...well, the view is just ridiculous. That, combined with the grade lessening for parts of the switchbacks, produced a giddy euphoria, as it was suddenly so easy to pedal my bike (comparatively speaking), and the view was unbelievably spectacular. Seriously, even in the middle of the experience, I could hardly believe it was real!

I'm now looking at my calendar to figure out when and how often I can get back up there this summer. The Mt Rainier National Park is truly a national treasure, and I can't recommend getting up there highly enough--bike, car, hike, whatever!

I wrote a blog post with a few mediocre cell-phone photos (though they are actually decent if you click to see them full size)-- http://mebikedolomitesoneday.wordpre...inier-by-bike/

[marni]

did a 36 mile on Friday the 4th. started out at 7:30 am in mid 70's with humidity about 70% finished at 10 with the temperature at 90 and the humidity at 100%. I need to start earlier or give up entirely for a while. Have I mentioned lately that I really dislike Houston summer weather?

[AppleTree]

Way to go Emily! And the year's only half over, so well done you! Riding in the heat is hard, I hate it. I'm glad I didn't do STP this year, as the first day was in the 90's. It would have killed me for sure, haha.

I've been sick all week, horrible bronchitis. I'm hoping to feel better to ride tomorrow maybe.

[emily_in_nc]

Way to go Emily! And the year's only half over, so well done you! Riding in the heat is hard, I hate it. I'm glad I didn't do STP this year, as the first day was in the 90's. It would have killed me for sure, haha.

I've been sick all week, horrible bronchitis. I'm hoping to feel better to ride tomorrow maybe.

Thanks AppleTree, and so sorry to hear that you're sick...bad time of year for that.

I was amazed to see how hot it would be for the STP. I'm sure that's atypical!

I'm sure my miles will tail off this fall as we'll be traveling back east, so lots of days in the car, then some family time so not a lot of cycling then either. So for me, the year is well more than half over...and really it is since this is the 7th month, not the 6th. I was thinking the same thing today as I rode along: "Hey, today the year is just about half over!" when I realized that actually occurred a month ago. Time flies!

[Crankin]

Getting ready for our annual trip to the Berkshires. Decided to rest yesterday and just got back from a very fast 3 mile walk with DH at 5:30 AM. I want my legs to be rested, as my friend who plans the routes has 2 new ones: one is 57 miles with lots of climbing in the beginning and the other has a 15% climb. The others, well, I already know the suffering! Oy. I will be tempted to sit by the pool with DH as he heals, but I intend to ride every mile. This should add in some good mileage for me. I'm at 1,100 and I need to be at 2,000 by the end of August to get near 3K for the year. It probably won't happen, but, I am hoping for a nice fall.
DH went to the ortho yesterday. He doesn't need to wear the sling, can walk or run. He's still targeting easy riding around Aug. 15. The doc said he'll be easily be ready to lead a ride we are doing on 9/27 and for our trip to Portugal, the week after that.